Las Vegas Weekly

October 26, 2009 · 8:05 AM

Donny Osmond’s DWTS hurdles: ‘grueling’ rehearsals, lack of sleep

By Robin Leach

Edyta Sliwinska, Ashley Hamilton, Anna Trebunskaya, Chuck Liddell, Kym Johnson, Donny Osmond, Chelsie Hightower and Louie Vito on Dancing With the Stars.

Photo: Adam Larkey/ABC TV

Tonight’s Season 9, Episode 6 of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars spells real trouble for two celebrity couples who will be booted from the series on tomorrow night’s results show. That will then leave just seven pairs in competition.

Our Flamingo headliner Donny Osmond, currently atop the leaderboard, has been complaining of “grueling rehearsals” and a lack of sleep as he juggles four shows a week on the Strip with sister Marie and tackles tonight’s challenges. Donny, our other favorites Kelly Osbourne and Las Vegas Academy pro dancer Derek Hough, stare down a mambo marathon, a dance-off and either the jitterbug or the waltz.

Derek is back after a bout with the flu, and he’ll have to help model Joanna Krupa pick up her scores after she slipped last week. They get the easier waltz to dance, as do Aaron Carter and Karina Smirnoff, Melissa Joan Hart and Mark Ballas and Michael Irvin and Anna Demidova. The betting in advance of tonight’s judges’ scores are that Joanna will be safe, and two of the others dancing the waltz will be axed.

Both Kelly with partner Louis Van Amstel and Donny with partner Kym Johnson will dance the more difficult jitterbug, along with Mark Dacascos and Lacey Schwimmer, Mya and Dmitry Chaplin and Louie Vito and Chelsie Hightower. The experts are predicting that the jitterbug dancers will all wind up safe.

Donny, who rehearsed for hours over the weekend, said: “Unfortunately, I’m practicing so much, I’ve forgotten how to sleep. I’m still on a high from last week, but now I need to practice sleeping. Saturday is a day of rest in many countries, but not for us. We’re now halfway through Dancing With the Stars, and I’m excited, but I still have a long way to go to beat Marie’s achievement. You would think that the dancing is getting easier now that I’ve learned the basics. That’s not the case, though!”

Kym watched the new Wayne Newton production Once Before I Go in previews at the Tropicana, while Donny performed in his own show with Marie at the Flamingo. Country singing sensation Taylor Swift is the guest star tomorrow night. We’ll have our spoiler-alert story tonight shortly after the live broadcast on the East Coast, as well as the results tomorrow night.

Meantime, gossip is heating up that Aaron and Karina have become an item. They’ve denied the reports, but insiders on the set say otherwise. Karina, 31, is 10 years older than Aaron and was engaged to pro dancer and our Le Reve choreographer Maksim Chmerkovskiy earlier this year (Karina also dated partner Mario Lopez in Season 3!). Aaron and Maks had been sniping at each another in interviews backstage.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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